Longmont police feared home was booby trapped but find suspect in Boulder County Jail

By Pierrette J. Shields Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
12/13/2012 11:53:00 AM MST

Updated:
12/13/2012 04:20:27 PM MST

The Longmont SWAT Team responds to an apartment at 50 19th Ave. in Longmont on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012.
(Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- The Longmont SWAT team surrounded a home Thursday morning, fearing that its occupant was armed and had booby-trapped the residence. But police later discovered the man was in jail and that the home was free of traps.

Cmdr. Jeff Satur said that at about 10 a.m., police responded to a reported burglary at 50 19th Ave. and discovered that a line had been rigged on front of the garden-level apartment. Satur said that investigators were worried about possible sniper activity because the occupant, Joseph Smith, had told officers during previous encounters that he had sniper training and military paraphernalia.

Satur said Smith had been evicted from the home Wednesday and his possessions were piled up outside. Smith was suspected of breaking in overnight and rigging a booby trap.

Joseph Smith

Just before noon, Satur said, officers confirmed that Smith was arrested in Boulder overnight on unrelated charges and was in the Boulder County Jail. Locating Smith allowed police to release SWAT officers from the scene because the possible threat of a gunman was lifted. The Boulder County Bomb Squad cleared the house and determined it was not booby trapped just after 1 p.m.

Police arranged for neighbors to be evacuated during the operation from an area bordered by Meadow Drive to the west, Meadow Street to the east, McCall Place to the north and 19th Avenue to the south. One officer assisted a seeing-impaired woman and her dog from the area until she could be picked up.Longmont police added burglary and vandalism arrest charges on Smith.

Neighbor Carolyn Cairo said she was walking her dog and saw all of the police and got worried.

"Seeing the SWAT team is a bit unnerving," she said.

She lives on Jewel Drive nearby and was not called with an evacuation order.

"I just wanted to find out if there was imminent danger," she said, adding that Jewel Drive is typically a quiet place to live. She said she was relieved to hear the suspect had been arrested, and she waved at an officer leaving the scene, offering her thanks for their work.

A Longmont police officer helps an unidentified woman and her dog evacuate from her residence after SWAT responded to an apartment at 50 19th Ave. on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012.
(Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)